More People Playing With Food

The music edition. These are both amazingly crazy and great.

Vegetable Instruments--This one can serve as an introduction to Heita3's other videos/songs-- cucumber trumpets, cabbage slide flutes, and pepper ocarinas await you! My favorite has to be this video (warning: post-modern).


The Vienna Vegetable Orchestra --"The further exploration and refinement of performable vegetable music is a central part of the orchestra's aesthetic quest."

If You Can't Beet 'Em...

Make Emma's Beet Risotto! A nice break from roasted root veggies (and a step up in fanciness), this dish is also an eye-pleaser. I'd never gotten my head completely around the idea of risotto, but according to Emma, if you can get used to pouring rice into a hot pan without liquid in it, you can make risotto. Here are the highlights of my interview with the chef:

Q. Do you have to use Arborio rice?
A. No, but you do need to use a short-grain variety. Something to do with starch content.

Q. Do you have to use broth?
A. No, but using water instead means it won't be as flavorful. You could probably get away with using a diluted broth, though.

Q. Why do you warm the broth?
A. So that each addition of fresh liquid doesn't cool the risotto and lengthen the cooking time.

Q. You've got wine and parmesan cheese listed as optional ingredients--are they really optional?
A. They both deepen and enrich the flavors of the dish, but a risotto made without them will still be tasty.

Q. What is the optimal consistency of risotto?
A. The professionals all say it should spread like gruel on a plate. I prefer it a little bit thicker

Beet Risotto Recipe Here

Wanted: Sage Advice

I've never known what to do with sage. It's such a strong flavor, called for in fancy "herbed" soup recipes and the like (or meat dishes) and I've just never gone there. Medicinally, too, it's uses are almost too many--healthy hair, skin, teeth and gums, digestion, sore throats and colds, memory (what am I forgetting?). But today we pruned back a row of overwintered sage in the garden and I found myself digging on the color and scent. So I'm on the lookout for sage recipes and tips. I've learned that it freezes well and mellows as it cooks, so it's good to add it at the end of the cooking process, and I did run across intriguing instructions for a sage pesto. What else?

Can You Dig It?

No, it's not a creature from the deep--it's Valerian root! We spent a few hours digging roots this week, so I thought I'd mention this powerful plant. Valerian is a hardy perennial whose root has sedative and nervine properties. Used for insomnia, anxiety, migraines, muscle relaxation and epilepsy, valerian's relaxant and mood-stabilizing action (in appropriate doses) hasn't been found to be addictive like narcotics or lose it's effectiveness over time. Here's a great post from the Herbwife's Kitchen to help you decide whether valerian might be supportive for your sleep quest. While I've heard the scent called disagreeable, it reminds me of those strong, musky flowers, that smell pleasant, but almost repulse you from the sheer thickness of the smell (it was used as a perfume in the 16th century, according to Wikipedia). In some versions of the legend, the Pied Piper uses valerian as well as his pipe to attract rats; it's a known cat attractant, too--and this effect was used as a clue multiple times in Agatha Christie novels. I've never used valerian myself--anyone got stories?

The Birthday Queen

She's made sure that all of ours made it onto the group calendar, so we had to do something special for Shawn's birthday. This cake was it. Just unbelievably good--texture, taste, this cake has it all. Unfortunately I was in too big a hurry to eat it that my photos area tad on the blurry side, that's a pretty big endorsement right there. It's officially " Grandmamma's Orange Cake". Chef Emma added a tsp of almond extract (and thinks she'll add two next time) as well as a handful of slivered almonds (but they baked down to almost nothing). The other amendment was 1/2 C of sugar instead of 3/4 for the syrup and I didn't notice anything missing. Yum!